Antigua, Guatemala

Antigua was the old colonial capital of Guatemala, and is a small, beautiful town ringed by volcanos. The restaurants serve terrific international cuisine at reasonable prices, you can get a pint of Guiness (for a price) and it´s one of the most popular choices in Central America to attend a language school and learn Spanish.
So why don´t we like it?
It´s hard to explain. Perhaps it´s the fact that the majority of people you see here are foreigners, and that you hear more English than Spanish on the street and in the bars. Perhaps we´re a little older than most of the backpackers here, and no longer have the same need to forge endless friendships and travel in a pack. Perhaps we just spent 3 days in the jungle with Mayans and are on our way to a language school by a secluded lagoon, and this town is just a mood mistake.
Don´t get me wrong - we are happy to make friends with other travellers and spend the odd evening getting drunk with them. We don´t put ourselves above them. It´s just not why we came here.
Still, we leave tomorrow for the language school (www.casarosario.com), and are both very excited about developing our lingustic skills. Spending time here, having to communicate in the Spanish we can muster has given us a taste and a hunger to learn how to converse properly, outside of a restaurant or hotel setting.
We also had some consolation on a day trip we took earlier today. Another quite gruelling day after our rainforest adventures but worth it as we scrambled to the peak of an active volcano. This was a tough walk - the ash-covered slope for the last 1km or so was like climbing up sanddunes, and coming down was more like skiing than walking. But right at the top, we saw this: Choking on sulphorous fumes, and a little scared, we were only allowed to stay a few minutes at the top amid the whirling smoke. But despite the harsh activity, and the aggravation of our respective old injuries, the sights were soothing enough to make this a beautiful day.

PS The above was written a few days ago, and left unpublished so we could swank about our jungle trek (see below if you haven't already) rather than whinge about tourists. We are now two days into our language course, reeling from the brainwork but stimulated - and living in probably the most beautiful place either of has ever seen. Contentment beckons.